Soapbox: The Feminist Foundation is a private funding organization which donates to promote feminist causes. The organization works closely with feminist activist Gloria Steinem, holds feminist camps, promotes feminist speakers, and seeks to “strengthen the individuals and organizations who are leading the way in feminism.” ¹ Soapbox Inc., sister organization to Soapbox: The Feminist Foundation, claims to be “world’s largest feminist speakers’ bureau.” ²

The Feminist Camp

Run by Soapbox Inc. and funded by Soapbox: The Feminist Foundation, the Feminist Camp has been conducting events since 2006. Soapbox Inc. founders Amy Richards and Jennifer Baumgardner had been organizing feminist speakers for events on college campuses, but then created the Feminist Camp to bring feminists to a group of speakers instead. ³

Makers

Soapbox: The Feminist Foundation also funds and creates educational art, with a documentary planned called Makers, distributed by working with “schools and educators to implement the Makers material into their curriculum.” ⁴ The documentary has since been turned into a book written by Jennifer Baumgardner. ⁵

Funding

The Tides Foundation, a left-wing grantmaking organization with revenues in excess of $2.6 billion since 2007, gave the largest grant to Soapbox: The Feminist Foundation, giving $400,000 of the organization’s $830,000 revenue in 2022, for “Equity, Human Rights, and Economic Empowerment.” ^{6 1}

Artemis Rising, a film-making organization dedicated to “transforming the culture through media” whose films focus on “gender-bias, healing, trauma, mental health, addiction and women’s empowerment” gave Soapbox: The Feminist Foundation $150,000 in 2022. ^{7 1}

People

Amy Richards is the president and treasurer of Soapbox: The Feminist Foundation. ¹ Richards originally founded Soapbox Inc. along with Jennifer Baumgardner to facilitate their speaking tours, but then grew the organization to manage the events of a roster of feminist speakers. ² Richards produced “WOMAN,” a series for Viceland, and was a consulting producer for an HBO documentary entitled Gloria Steinem: In Her Own Words. ⁵ Richards is a leader in the Third Wave Feminism movement, co-founding the Third Wave Foundation (now known as The Third Wave Fund), and co-authoring along with Jennifer Baumgardner the book Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism And The Future. ^{8 5}

Gloria Steinem, a prominent figure in the second wave feminism movement and pro-abortion activist, works closely with Soapbox Inc., and is a featured speaker of the group. ^{9 10} Steinem has a key role in the organization, listed in founding documents in 2014 under Summary of Direct Charitable Activities, which begins with the sentence “Movement Building: Working closely with Gloria Steinem.” ^{11 12}

1. “Soapbox the Feminist Foundation Form 990.” ProPublica, May 9, 2013. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/464146072/202313199349106486/full.
2. “Speakers.” Soapbox Inc. Accessed May 12, 2024. https://www.soapboxinc.com/about/.
3. “History.” Feminist Camp. Accessed May 12, 2024. http://www.feministcamp.com/history.
4. “Soapbox the Feminist Foundation form 990.” ProPublica, May 9, 2013. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/464146072/202313199349106486/full.
5.  “About the Author.” WE ARE MAKERS. Accessed May 12, 2024. https://www.wearemakersbook.com/about-the-author.
6. “Tides Foundation Form 990.” ProPublica, May 9, 2013. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/510198509/202333189349300213/full.
7. “The Foundation.” Artemis Rising Foundation. Accessed May 12, 2024. https://artemisrising.org/the-foundation.
8. Shaw, Susan. “Q&A: Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards on the 20th Anniversary of ‘Manifesta.’” Ms. Magazine, April 23, 2024. https://msmagazine.com/2020/04/01/the-ms-qa-jennifer-baumgardner-and-amy-richards-on-the-20th-anniversary-of-manifesta/.
9. “Speakers.” Soapbox Inc. Accessed May 12, 2024. https://www.soapboxinc.com/speakers/gloria-steinem/.
10. “Affiliations.” Gloria Steinem. Accessed May 12, 2024. http://www.gloriasteinem.com/affiliations.
11. Ms. Steinem’s CIA connection. Accessed May 13, 2024. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP88-01315R000300380009-2.pdf.
12. “The Feminist Was a Spy.” USC Center on Public Diplomacy, November 4, 2016. https://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/blog/feminist-was-spy.